


Feel the Hurt

by BatmanWhoLaughss



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Disney Princesses, Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Angst, Coda, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s03e01-02 Rapunzel's Return, F/M, Feelings, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, Rapunzel Needs a Hug (Disney)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:08:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27276184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BatmanWhoLaughss/pseuds/BatmanWhoLaughss
Summary: “And Eugene?”“Hmm?” He looks at Rapunzel expectantly.“I think I’m ready to talk about Cass.”---Post-Rapunzel's Return. Rapunzel talks, and Eugene listens
Relationships: Cassandra & Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Rapunzel, Cassandra & Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled), Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30





	Feel the Hurt

**Author's Note:**

> I literally just binged this entire show and IT'S SO HECKING GOOD?!?!??!?!? Raps and Eugene were always my favorite Disney pair and I am SO HAPPY THIS SHOW EXISTS, I wanted to write about it.

“And Eugene?”

“Hmm?” He looks at Rapunzel expectantly.

“I think I’m ready to talk about Cass.” She gives him a small smile, tiny and hopeful but one that betrays all the emotion she’s feeling all the same. And he can’t help but smile back at her encouragingly, because he’s so unbelievably  _ proud _ of her for facing this head on, the way she always does. Because they  _ need _ to talk about it, but for a moment there Eugene was really worried that Rapunzel never would.

“Well then,” Eugene says, his smile growing. “I am all ears, Sunshine.” He leans back against the window as Pascal crawls up to perch on his shoulder. 

Rapunzel gets up, pacing back and forth as she sighs. “At first, I felt so betrayed, y’know? I mean she’s my best friend.  _ Our _ best friend.”  _ Ehh. Debatable,  _ he thinks, but he keeps his mouth shut. She needs to get this out without him butting in. “How could she travel all that way with us and then just turn her back on everything we worked for? Everything we went through together?” Her voice is rising, getting higher and higher as her frustration grows. Now she’s looking at him expectantly, and he feels Pascal nudge his cheek. 

“I don’t know,” Eugene says in a low voice. “Honestly, as much as I like to make fun of Cass, I really didn’t see this coming either. She’s like a sister to me, and she saved both our necks more than once.” The words are true, despite his earlier quip. Cass had become such a big part of both of their lives, and he isn’t feeling too great about her betrayal either, now that he thinks about it. But this isn’t about him.

“Yeah…” Rapunzel stops pacing, coming back to sit on the windowsill next to him. Her eyes are downcast, now, her brief flare of anger dissipating as quickly as it came. Now she’s deflating, curling inward in a way that he rarely sees her do. Eugene reaches for her hand, handing her the cupcake he brought in earlier. He’s rewarded with a brief smile, before her face falls again. 

“But then, after everything she said? About Gothel, and… me?” she swallows. “Now it just feels… I don’t know how to explain it.” She looks down at the cupcake. Her voice is soft now, barely above a whisper, and her face is doing that thing it always does, when she’s trying desperately to keep it together because if she stops smiling the floodgates are going to open and they’re not going to stop. The hand that was laced through hers reaches up to rest on her shoulder.

“Hollow?” he supplies. “Like everything you knew was a lie, and now things are so bad they won’t ever be the same again.” He sees her bottom lip tremble, and for a moment he’s worried that he pushed too far. But she needs to face this, so sugarcoating things won’t help anyone.

Surprisingly, Rapunzel lets out a bitter, self-deprecating laugh. “Heh. Yeah. Going through all that  _ once _ was bad enough, but twice–” Her voice breaks on the last word. She’s still trying to smile, trying to keep it together as much as possible–  _ bright and smiley Princess Rapunzel, just like always.  _ It works until it doesn’t, until everything she’s been pushing down until they saved the city hits her in one giant wave. Her shoulders are trembling, and a stray tear leaks out. 

“Hey, hey, c’mere Sunshine,” Eugene says, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her against his side. It  _ hurts _ to see her like this, so similar to the way she broke down a few weeks after Gothel died– when she finally had to face the fact that her entire life was one giant sham. “It’s alright.” It’s not alright, in fact it’s the furthest thing from alright they’ve ever seen. Cass has unspeakable power that can destroy Corona and the rest of the  _ world _ , and he’s half a breath away from freaking out himself. But he needs to say  _ something _ to take that look off her face.

She sniffles once, and Eugene feels Pascal shift to rest a hand on Rapunzel’s head. After a moment her eyes open again, and underneath the tears he’s surprised to see she looks angry again. “I never asked for this,” she whispers. 

“I know you didn’t, Blondie.” No one in their right  _ mind _ would ever ask for this.

“I never wanted  _ any _ of this!” Her voice is stronger now, and she stands up again. “I didn’t  _ ask _ to be born with magic flower powers, I didn’t want a mad woman to abduct me and lock me in a tower my whole life, while apparently abandoning her  _ real  _ daughter in the process. I didn’t  _ ever _ ask for my hair to come back or to be part of some mystical prophecy and carry the fate of the whole world on my shoulders, I didn’t–”

She’s yelling now, the tears streaming down her face as her words echo off the walls of her bedroom. Eugene’s eyes are wide, and he looks down at Pascal to see that his are too. Eugene’s  _ never _ seen Rapunzel like this, and suddenly he  _ aches _ for her, and for everything she’s been through. Then she cuts off, suddenly, like all the fight goes out of her at once, and she drops to her knees on her bedroom floor. 

“Oh, Blondie…” He slides to the floor along with her, wrapping her in his arms as her head finds his shoulder. She’s full-on sobbing now, and he rests a hand on the back of her head. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“What did I do  _ wrong,  _ Eugene?” What did I do to make her hate me so much?” Rapunzel whispers. The words cut him to the bone, because her voice sounds smaller than he’s ever heard it.

“ _ Hey.  _ You didn’t do anything wrong, you hear me? You just got… unlucky. Magic and trouble seems to follow you.” He’s trying to lighten the mood a little, trying to make her laugh at least once, but she’s still crying. 

“All I ever wanted to do was be her friend,” Rapunzel sniffs. “But the way she  _ looked at me _ , in the dark kingdom… she couldn’t  _ stand _ me. Did I really treat her like she was second best? I never wanted to, not ever.” She peers up at him with bleary eyes, her eyes wide and desperate. 

He presses a kiss to the top of her head, before leaning in to rest his forehead against hers. “Listen to me, Sunshine.” He tries to keep his voice steady; she needs someone to lean on right now, and it’s the least he can do to help. “ _ None  _ of this is on you, you hear me? You can’t blame yourself for this. You didn’t do anything wrong, okay?” 

Rapunzel sighs. “I know, but… I can’t help but feel like I was the one who hurt  _ her _ .” 

“Cass made her choice.” Eugene says, pressing his lips to her forehead again. “You couldn’t have stopped her, no matter what you did. As awful as it is, we’ve gotta accept that. But I know somewhere deep down, she doesn’t hate you.” He smiles at her. “How could anyone hate you?”

That  _ finally _ gets him a small chuckle, and he smiles wider when he hears it. “Look, I won’t lie. I don’t know what’s gonna happen over the next few months, but no matter what it is, we’ll get through it, okay? I’m not going anywhere.” He’s trying to pour every ounce of conviction into his words, everything he feels for her and all the faith he has that they’ll succeed. He’s pleasantly surprised when he sees her smile up at him. 

“You mean that?” His brow furrows again. She sounds so uncertain, and for the first time she’s looking at him like she’s not sure he’ll still be here in the morning. 

“Of course I do, Rapunzel.”

Her smile gets bigger, and she wipes the stray tears from her eyes. He bats her hand away, before drying her face with his sleeve, and he flashes her his patented Flynn Rider charm smile when he sees that she’s blushing. 

“I love you, Eugene,” she whispers, looking at him with so much adoration that it makes  _ him _ blush a little. Even after all this time, she still has that effect on him. 

“I love you too, Sunshine.” Then his lips find hers as he pulls her close, and he feels Pascal scurry off to a far corner of the room to give the two of them some privacy. 

Her arms wind around his neck and her fingers work their way into his hair as their lips move in a slow dance. It’s one they’ve gotten good at by now, and he’s so lost in her that he doesn’t even bother to complain about her messing up his hair again. 

Eventually, they break apart, both of them slightly breathless. He smiles at her again, and he’s relieved to see her grin brightly back at him as he tucks a stray hair behind her ear.

“Hey, c’mon. What do you say we head down to the kitchen and see if the cooks will let us snag a couple more cupcakes, huh?” Eugene wipes away one last stray tear that managed to linger on Rapunzel’s face.

Rapunzel giggles, the bright, happy way that he’s so used to hearing. “That sounds good to me,” she says, as he reaches for her hand. 

Eugene knows this won’t be the last time they’ll talk about this. He knows Rapunzel will struggle, that she won’t give up on Cass until she absolutely has to, and that it’ll hurt every time they have to fight her. But he also knows that she’s the strongest person he’s ever met, and she  _ never _ lets anything keep her down for long. They  _ will _ be okay in the long run. He knows that as surely as he knows the sun will rise in the morning. 

But until then, he’s happy to offer Rapunzel a shoulder to cry on, any day.


End file.
